Solar Sands
Solar Sands is a YouTuber who is best known for his Browsing DeviantArt and In a Nutshell videos. In his most popular series (Browsing Deviantart), he reviews and critiques different categories and styles of art on the popular art website DeviantArt. The series started off with his 3rd video, "Browsing Deviantart: UNDERTALE ART", where he reviewed fanart based on the popular role-playing game Undertale. Videos Solar Sands has associated himself with plenty of various video categories that have made his channel gradually rise in popularity. Browsing DeviantArt Browsing Deviantart is the primary series that Solar has adapted to using for the most convenient method of reaching out to the largest audience, along with being currently his most uploaded genre of content. In these videos, Solar reviews many various pieces of art found commonly on the website of DeviantArt that he usually considers being either poor in quality or in need of improvement/more effort and proceeds to explain the various ways they could improve on said art pieces and styles. Although he has been recognized for this type of series and is most typically associated with it, many users of DeviantArt criticizing at Solar Sands for criticizing their art or their favorite artist. As such, Solar Sands has grown accompanied to the balance between loyal fans and hateful critics. His first Browsing Deviantart video was of when he reviewed various types of fanart of a popular 2015 game known as Undertale, created by Toby Fox, which has gained massive popularity within its fanbase since it's release. Since then, the majority of his content consists of him looking at the various art pieces of any popular topic, ranging from strange 'fetishes' to popular fandoms to even OCs (Original Characters). In much more recent Browsing DeviantArt videos, Solar has decided to cease reviewing artwork of artists who did not give their consent to have their art reviewed, and now commonly asks for volunteers on both Twitter and DeviantART to share their own artwork for any new video he makes. This was done to avoid the repetitive comments that often accuse him of "reviewing art without someone's consent," a fair accusation considering the truth of it, and to avoid having people witch hunt any bad artist he talks about. However, the older videos of him reviewing various random artists still remain up on his channel. In a Nutshell His older genre of 'In a Nutshell' videos consisted primarily of Solar redrawing crude main characters from a specific franchise in Microsoft Paint and vaguely describing the basic plot of said fandom for humorous appeal and an overall sense of genuine lack of care for quality. His first video was on the fandom of Undertale, which has since started a running gag on his channel on which a character will state "oh wow" repeatedly, referencing said Undertale video. This became his most popular video on his channel and has spawned many parodies of different topics since. Solar Sands has noticed these videos and has even made a 100K subscriber special on which he reviews these parody videos of his own parody videos. Art Talk In these videos, Solar speaks in a general perspective on how an artist can effectively improve their creative habits by taking criticism maturely, their art style, content, and the like. In an attempt to avoid any comments of people becoming offended by his advice, he simply reminds the fans that it is all simply just his opinion and that criticism should be considered and used to help an artist improve their work. For example, in the 'Art Talk - Bases' video, he gives his opinion on why he's highly against bases being used in the artwork. A newer sub-series titled "Art Things I Hate" has sprung up from this main series, showcasing Solar taking short periods of time to point out common mistakes, flaws, or artistic habits he dislikes and/or finds repetitive. With careful wording, Solar aims in each video to constructively aid viewers with advice on how to work around these habits. Similar to these videos, Solar has also created videos titled "Stupid Things People Believe About Art," "Ridiculous Art Thefts," and "Art Things I Like," which all showcase a similar theme of constructive criticism or the aspect of pointing out the flaws of either art or of people who comment on said art. Edgiest Vlog on the Internet On occasion, Solar Sands will upload a vlog video that generally differentiates from the norm of most of his other video types. These videos, labeled as "The Edgiest Vlog on the Internet," often consist of vlogs, room tours, and humorous nonsense between Solar and his younger brother, Rayan. These videos are often the only types of videos in which Solar Sands will be on camera in-person, instead of just speaking into a microphone and using only his scripted voice for the majority of his videos. When on-camera, he always wears a mask that mirrors his channel icon in order to conceal his face. Rayan, however, does not wear anything to hide his identity, as in many videos people are able to see Rayan's full appearance. Controversy Ever since Solar Sands gained popularity in his Browsing DeviantArt series on YouTube, the common reaction to his criticism relates to many people calling him out for being too harsh with his judgments. Solar then factually addresses these accusations by reminding them that criticism is meant to aid artists and help them to improve their art style further, and therefore should be welcomed rather than resented. Nonetheless, the continuous comments over people disliking Solar's methods of criticizing remain, and he often still addresses many of them on his Twitter account as a form of mini-rant on a weekly basis. Solar Sands has been included in many arguments in the comments of his videos and notes on DeviantArt that have stirred up further controversy. For example, a DeviantArt user by the name of "bililahthesegagamer" posted three videos to YouTube of himself ranting about Solar Sands and other YouTubers that reviewed his art, angrily stating that people like him don't have the right to criticize people's art reasoning they think the concept is strange or the drawing quality is poor. Solar Sands eventually made a response video to this, saying that Bililah is amusing for making ignorant statements like this directed at harmless art reviewers. Overall, it's understandable that many people find the act of criticizing their artwork and creations to be a sensitive topic for them to have to deal with. Most young, self-conscious viewers with little art experience don't take criticism, even constructive criticism, very well. Solar Sands still attempts to remind his viewers in almost every video that his judgments are to be taken as something helpful and not hurtful, but whether they choose to actually listen to his opinions or not is beyond his concern. Category:Users that joined in 2015 Category:Male YouTubers Category:YouTube Reviewers